12 Things Out Of The Box Windows PC Can Do That Mac Can’t

I’m a Windows fan. I’ve owned about a dozen different Windows machines over the years and I’ve mostly used Windows as my primary desktop operating system. I also respect all the work Apple has put into their Mac OSX though; it’s more stable, looks sleeker than Microsoft’s offering and offers better security over the later. It’s true that the conflict between Microsoft fans and Apple loyalists have been raged for years arguing over which platform is better or not, but here at Addictivetips, we believe that both operating systems have got their own strengths and weaknesses. A while back we compiled a list of things that a Mac does but a PC can’t. And today, we are going to unleash 12 things that a Windows PC can do that Mac can’t. Read on.

Windows Offers Greater Flexibility And Customization

Everyone knows that PCs come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Unlike Mac, which is solely manufactured by Apple, a Windows machine can be purchased from any brand including Sony, HP, Acer, Toshiba and (put-your-favorite-brand-name-here). But what makes it even more interesting is the ability to customize it further in a variety of ways . Let’s say you want to add a more powerful graphics card to your computer, if you use Windows, there’s a whole bunch of choices at your disposal with a huge range of prices and features. Likewise, you can swap an Intel processor with AMD or a Kingston RAM with Corsair, but the same cannot be achieved on an OEM Mac machine.

Better Gaming Experience

A Windows computer can play any PC game out of the box provided your computer has the adequate graphical and processing prowess. There are simply more games for Windows than there are for Mac. The increasing visual quality and size of games make PCs a more preferable and enjoyable choice when compared to Mac. Even if your system doesn’t meet the required specs for running a modern game, you can simply swap out the graphic card or CPU, or throw in some more RAM to enjoy all the latest and greatest PC gaming has to offer.

Create New Files Via Right-Click Context Menu

Even though Mac enables you to create folders via right click context menu, it’s not possible to create new files such as text items or application shortcuts in a similar way. On Windows, however, it is. When you right-click on desktop, you can simply navigate to ‘New’ sub menu and create all sorts of different files that you want to create from scratch including TXT items, RAR archives, application shortcuts, folders and whatnot.

Jump Lists

The Dock feature found in Mac is fancy and all, but Windows’ ability to Pin applications to the Taskbar is way more intuitive. One interesting bit pertaining to the Taskbar is the Jump Lists feature, which lets you access recent files or perform tasks that were recently associated with a particular program.  For example, this could include recently visited pages on Chrome, frequently accessed folders via File Explorer or files that you may added to Photoshop. To see a Jump List of any application, you can right-click its Quick Launch icon on the Taskbar. You can even drag a file from Jumplist and copy it to anywhere you want. Although you can right-click a dock icon in Mac OS X and access recent items, it doesn’t seamlessly show them as Jump List do.

Maximize Windows With A Single Click

Mac’s Zoom (maximize) button can be rather confusing. When you click this button, for instance, instead of filling the entire screen, Mac would simply toggle between a small window size and large window size, leaving a lot of wasted empty space on either sides of the screen. On Windows, however, things work exactly as they should. When you click the Maximize button it will actually maximize it to fill the whole screen, allowing you to use your applications with full focus on content without any distractions.

Another way to instantly maximize windows to full screen is by simply pinning them to the top of the screen.

Runs On Touchscreen Devices

Windows 8 is loved by many people while many others may hate it. One of the best things about Microsoft’s latest operating system is touchscreen support. From its Modern UI apps to the conventional desktop environment, the new Windows works quite well on touch screens. And quite frankly, Windows 8 is pretty good on touchscreen enabled tablets, despite what naysayers say. As for the Mac, Apple has already confessed numerous times that touchscreen support for Mac is a ‘non-goal’ of the company.

Move Taskbar To All Four Screen Sides

Where the Mac OS X Dock can only be position to the right, left or bottom of the screen, Windows enables you to stick the Taskbar to all four sides of the screen.

Run Desktop And Modern UI Apps

It’s true that Modern UI apps in Windows 8 may not replace conventional desktop apps (if ever) but Microsoft’s offering gives you the diversity of choice. For example, you can use both Modern UI and standard desktop versions of the same app simultaneously (Skype, anyone?). This allows you to seamlessly switch between them depending on different situations. For instance, if you have a touch screen enabled notebook, you may find it more preferable to use the Modern UI variant of an app when you’re walking down the street or driving your car.

Can Go To The Beginning And End Of Document With Home And End Keys

Apple’s native keyboard doesn’t offer Home and End keys which makes it fairly taxing to go to the beginning or end of a document or webpage. Where in Mac you may need to press a couple of keys, Windows PC has separate buttons for both. Under a document preview in your word processor, for instance, you can simply press the End key to jump directly to the bottom. Likewise, pressing Home key brings you back to the top.

Rename Multiple Files

Renaming multiple files on Mac can be a tedious process because you are required to either download a third-party tool or create custom script to help solve this issue. Windows, on the other hand, allows you to rename multiples files at once, easily.
To do that, select all the files in the same folder, right-click the first one and select Rename. Type your desired base file name and hit the Enter key. Windows will then automatically add a number to the base name making things more organized and clutter free.

 Resize Thumbnails

In Windows File Explorer you can use the Views button on the Toolbar or Ribbon UI to change the View type between List, Content, Details, Tiles, etc. But if you want more control over icon size, you can press Ctrl and move mouse scroller up and down to precisely control icons size. This is something that Mac OS X doesn’t offer.

 Real Time CPU Clock Speed

As a Mac user, you would be familiar with the OS X Activity Monitor that lets you view and monitor the processes and applications running on your computer. Task Manager is the Windows equivalent for that. In Windows 8 and above, if you navigate to Performance > CPU tab of Task Manager,  you will find that it displays CPU clock speed in real time. While Mac also let you monitor overall CPU usage in Activity Monitor, it doesn’t display CPU clock speed.

Got some more differences to share? Think we missed something that make Windows even better? Don’t hesitate to leave your feedback in the comments section below.